In the weeks following
Mitt Romney’s electoral defeat, Republicans worried at length that the failure
indicated a growing cultural divide in which traditional values were being
lost. It seemed that millions voted in favor of the free stuff handed out by
the redistributionist administration, like the free Obama phones and near
doubling of food stamps. Minorities did indeed vote for Obama in large
majorities: Hispanics, 71 percent; Asians, 73 percent; blacks, 96 percent
(including 100 percent in Philadelphia!).

Quick-fix
remedies were proposed, in particular that Republicans should promote an
illegal alien amnesty for millions of foreign lawbreakers that would prove
conservatives’ friendliness toward diverse immigration.

If only it were
that easy. A little surrender of American sovereignty will not begin to solve
the cultural erosion, because the rot goes far deeper than can be remedied by a
simple political deal. Traditional values and American history are condemned
throughout popular culture, but nowhere more than in the public school system.

The neighborhood
schoolhouse is often a little indoctrination center for the trendy ideals of
diversity as the highest good, followed closely by the equality of outcome in
society. American and immigrant kids alike both get the same dose of
anti-American views that condemn capitalism, national sovereignty, and the idea
of equality of individuals under law.

Modern science
informs us that we humans are tribal creatures, hard-wired to prefer the
company of others like ourselves in terms of language, culture, and values
because of safety within the clan. In short, everybody wants to hang out with
people who understand their jokes. Therefore the idea that diversity is a top
goal must be repeated and reinforced constantly, because it is so contrary to
human nature.

It used to be that Chicano and other ethnic
studies were available in college only, but not every young student gets that
far, so now the pro-diversity message has trickled down to the earliest
classes. Even little kindergarten kids can learn some words in Spanish and hear
that diversity is our strength.

I experienced
the devolution firsthand when in November 2010 I attended the 9th Circuit Court
in San Francisco to observe the legal proceedings concerning Arizona’s
immigration enforcement law. The local Raza types got out a substantial crowd
to protest in the street by the court, including lots of non-Hispanic kids
waving signs in favor of open borders and other anti-American issues. I talked
to a blond boy and he told me it was a class project of their Berkeley middle
school to attend, and not as observers of the legal process but as protestors
against a law in a state where they do not live.

One recent
indicator of the increasing multicultural emphasis was California’s September
enactment of a law mandating that Sikh history be taught in schools to promote
“the role and contributions of the Sikh community” in the state. By 2014,
textbooks will contain a narrative of the tribe over the last century, which
will certainly be a boon to publishers, although not the taxpayer.

The Golden State
has led in other efforts in re-education. In August, Gov. Brown signed a bill
urging that the story of braceros be part of the social studies curriculum.
Supporters from La Raza cheerfully emphasized that the bracero program brought
in several millions of Mexicans to the U.S. starting in World War II,
facilitating the first big wave from that country.

The year 2012
also introduced the requirement for the inclusion of “gay history” for
California students of all ages. The law requires “a study of the role and
contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, persons
with disabilities, and members of other cultural groups.”

Incidentally, it
is entirely appropriate for schools to promote basic politeness and respect
among all kids. Such ground rules, however, do not require the detailing of
every tribe’s history. Meanwhile kids in Asia are studying math and science.

In Arizona,
there has been a long-simmering disagreement over the public schools,
instruction of la Raza propaganda, locally known as Mexican-American studies.
Many citizens were not happy about their tax dollars being spent to teach
Mexican Marxism. In 2008, John Ward, a Hispanic teacher working in an afflicted
school, wrote an op-ed (“Raza studies gives rise to racial hostility”), saying
he “refused to be complicit in a curriculum that engendered racial hostility,
irresponsibly demeaned America’s civil institutions, undermined our public
servants, discounted any virtues in Western civilization and taught disdain for
American sovereignty.”

After much
contentious debate, Arizona passed a law mandating that sedition being taught
in the guise of ethnic studies could not continue, and any school with such
subjects would cause its district to lose 10 percent of funding. In January
2012, the Tucson School Board voted to suspend Mexican-American Studies so the
district would not lose $15 million according to the state law. But in November
it was announced that Mexican studies might be reborn in some form as a part of
a larger settlement regarding a 38-year lawsuit over racial segregation in
Tucson. Stay tuned.

In Texas, some
educators apparently thought it would be clever to present the Boston Tea Party
as a modern news report framed as terrorism, and direct the kids to discuss.
The 1773 action was intended to represent the idea of “no taxation without
representation” and no persons were killed or injured during the tea dump into
the harbor. A group of colonists later offered to pay the cost of the tea but
the merchants refused. So comparing the Boston Tea Party to al Qaeda in a
classroom is outrageous and unsupported by the facts.

Cultural
touchstones that reflect positively on traditional customs must be rooted out
to make way for the utopian diversity, which multicultural cultists imagine.
One is Christmas, so rich with associated traditions and memorable music.

In Minnesota,
some Somali parents in the town of St. Peter didn’t like Santa Claus visiting
the Head Start class — perhaps too Christian for little Muslim children who
might want to be jihadists as adults. Did Somalis not understand that
immigration to the United States would entail interacting with Christians,
followers of the dominant religion? The Islamic complaints of a few prevented a
normal American custom for the rest of the kids. Even the local ACLU thought it
was unnecessary to end the much enjoyed visits of Santa, portrayed by a local
man who loved volunteering for the kids.

Even
non-religious holidays have come under the gun. In Seattle this year, an
elementary school stopped the kids dressing up in costumes for Halloween.
Administrators felt that Halloween costumes could offend and upset students who
come from other cultures. The school announced a less potentially offensive
“Harvest Party” to replace Halloween with costumes. Many kids and parents were
upset by the change, but their feelings didn’t count compared with the
possibility of offense to diverse foreigners.

Speaking of
religion, many schools are so craven that they cannot even tell the truth about
the 9/11 terror attacks, specifically that the murder of nearly 3,000 was
committed by Islamic jihadists motivated by their violent religion. An analysis
of 38 textbooks used in grades 6-12 conducted by Act! for America found a
disturbing level of whitewashing the true nature of Islam. One popular book
said the Koran “granted women Koran spiritual and social equality with men” and
gave them the right to own and inherit property — when in fact women are
second-class citizens at best in every Islamic nation. In earlier generations,
schools warned children that Nazism and Communism were dangerous totalitarian
ideologies that should be opposed. But today, the education system treats Islam
as just another religion, despite hostile Muslims openly declaring their
intention to establish a one-world government ruled by cruel and misogynous
sharia law. American schools are creating a generation of ignorant young
citizens who will be sheep in the face of the Islamic wolf.

There have been
instances of schools making kids dress up like Muslims and even recite Islamic
prayers so students could learn about the culture from the inside out. In 2002,
the Byron, California, schools directed 7th graders to live like Muslims for
three weeks — kids were required to memorize Muslim prayers, fulfill the Five
Pillars of Faith, and fast during lunch period to simulate fasting during the
Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

For some odd
reason, the ACLU never seems interested in such egregious cases of religion
being forced upon children in public schools, while the mere sight of a Bible
can inspire an immediate smackdown lawsuit.

Diversity
indoctrination continues beyond K-12 into college, of course. NPR reported last
fall that incoming freshmen in many colleges were asked to read a book over the
summer to be discussed when they arrived. The book, of all the many thousands
of easily available titles, could have been anything from Plato’s
Republic
to
Moby Dick or Jack Kerouac’s
On
the Road — there are so many possibilities to inspire conversation.
But the book chosen was Enrique’s
Journey, the story of
an illegal alien Honduran’s travels to America to join up with his mother, another
illegal entrant. Rick Mayes, a University of Richmond professor interviewed by
NPR, explained that the story helped guide students into political activism:
“We, at the University of Richmond, we try to take the learning out of the
classroom and into the community as best we can. And this book is a great
catalyst for that.”

So training
community organizers to serve the diverse downtrodden is seen by at least one
professor (and probably many more) as a major purpose of the university. That’s
college education for too many these days. Look at the Occupiers. They
graduated from the liberal curriculum of advanced victimhood studies, and then
pitched their tents with a list of vague but insistent demands for social
justice.

Once upon a
time, our education system taught an appreciation for American history, values,
and principles of governance. Immigrant kids got the same message, that
American culture was for everyone, and not so long ago. Victor Davis Hanson
described his patriotic grade school education of the 1960’s in California’s
Central Valley in his 2002 article, “The Civic Education America Needs.” Even
though two-thirds of Hanson’s classmates were Mexican born or descended, the
school didn’t teach race-based Raza studies to accentuate tribalism to somehow
improve self-esteem. The aim was to raise responsible young members of American
society, not create a demanding victim cadre.

As Hanson wrote:

...we repeatedly heard that President
Lincoln, Mark Twain, and John Henry belonged to a heritage we all shared — that
we natives had no more claim on FDR or Guadalcanal than did the new arrivals
from Oaxaca or the Punjab.

Can the current
educational system be fixed? Millions of parents have voted negatively by
placing their kids in private schools, around 10 percent nationwide.
(Interestingly, in 2008, 27 percent of students attended private schools in
diversity-promoting San Francisco.) However the great majority of private
schools are religiously based, and may have drunk the diversity/immigration
Kool-Aid as much as their public brethren. An estimated three percent of
students, around 1.5 million kids, are homeschooled according to the 2012
Statistical
Abstract released by the Census. Unfortunately, many parents cannot
afford an alternative education for offspring.

Still, citizen
taxpayers have a right to see their education dollars spent wisely, without
hostile ideologies being taught to impressionable young minds. More attention
must be paid to who serves on school boards. A Tea Party sub-movement to elect concerned
patriots for the local board of education would be appropriate.

Repairing a broken culture is a long-term
project, and it won’t be put right by politicians looking for a quick fix.
Certainly the societal effects of much of contemporary movies, music, and
television are negative, if not downright poison. But the school system lays
down the foundational ideas by which young people judge their surrounding
society.

As Ronald Reagan wisely observed, “Freedom is
a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction.”

So when recent college graduates describe the
United States as evil, racist, and sexist, they are reciting what they have
been taught. And that needs to change.